Hospitals to get bulk of increased spending
After two years of painful budget cuts to health care, the Quebec government will spend an extra $772 million in 2017-2018 to reduce wait times for surgery, hire more nurse practitioners and boost funding to public nursing homes, among other measures.
But critics charged the reinvestment will hardly make up for the cuts that have forced some hospitals to close beds and cancel surgeries.
“I’m not impressed,” said Paul Brunet of the Conseil pour la protection des malades. “We all know that the (provincial) election is coming, but the government is not even putting back the money that it cut.”
The government will increase health spending by 4.2 per cent to $36.7 billion. By comparison, health expenditures climbed by 2.9 per cent last year and 2.3 per cent the year before. Experts suggest that to keep up with the socalled rate of medical inflation, the health budget should rise by 5 per cent a year.
In the past two years, Health Minister Gaétan Barrette merged hospitals across the province while abolishing more than 1,300 positions. Barrette has said the government had to get its financial house in order before reinvesting in health care.
Most of that reinvestment will go toward hospitals. The government will spend an additional $200 million over the next two years to reduce hospital wait times. It will also provide $328 million in extra funds for health institutions in fiscal 2017-2018. Quebec will spend $10 million this year to hire more nurse practitioners, who can prescribe certain medications. Another $10 million will be set aside for nurse practitioners in 2018-2019.
And over the next two years, the government will inject $130 million more into the network of nursing homes, known as CHSLDs.
However, the head of a pensioners’ association expressed skepticism. “The government must think that by abolishing the health tax, elderly Quebecers will forget that it’s still difficult to have access to a doctor or to receive home care,” said Pierre-Paul Côté, president of the Association des retraitées de l’education et des autres services publics du Québec.
However, one patient-rights group praised reinvesting in health care, especially for those who suffer from autism.
“The government is recognizing the array of needs for health and social services in Quebec,” said Pierre Blain of the Regroupement provincial des comités des usagers.